


of silenced ghosts and separation

by cryptic_dragon



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Destiny 2 beta, Gen, Homecoming, One Shot, the tower is burning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 10:39:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11712696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptic_dragon/pseuds/cryptic_dragon
Summary: It was said that to aid another Guardian in revival, to offer a part of one's own Light to see them swiftly back onto their feet was to bind them to you, to weave yourself into the tapestry of their immediate fate. Sometimes it meant the favor would merely be returned within a few moments of heated battle. Other times were not as easy to define.





	of silenced ghosts and separation

  
    "Zavala, the last of the shuttles is away," said Ikora, her voice crackling across their headsets. "But the Speaker, he never made it."  
    "I'll hold this position. Punchline, you get to Ikora!" Zavala shouted from his place at the rear of the Tower Plaza. He was the last living barrier between the chaos of invading Cabal forces and the escaping Tower inhabitants; his was the final wall pledged to protect those still attempting to flee. He could not leave, but he would order others to take his place. "Help her find the Speaker!"  
    "Sir!" Van and Zu acknowledged as one, sharing a quick glance before following Katje as he made a bee-line for the Tower North hallway, vaulting over the railing instead of going the long way and taking the steps. In the ceremonial armor they still wore, having been summoned from the now all-but-forgotten recent festivities down in the City, De Zu was slower than the other two and so she lagged behind by quite a ways. As she reached the doorway into the hall, her companions were already disappearing down the steps and around the corner. _"De Zu, are you coming?"_ Van teased over their private channel, though his voice was slightly winded.  
    She began to snarl a reply about his Phoenix armor-set and its mobility perks versus her borrowed set and its added defense, but then another voice rang out from the courtyard. She stopped herself at the open doorway, peering out into the Plaza one last time to watch another pair of Guardians scrambling over fallen debris and each other to get to the shimmering purple safety of Zavala's Ward of Dawn. One turned tail and dove behind what remained of the Gunsmith's stand to weather the brief missile storm, but the other died shortly before reaching the safety of the Commander's bubble. She tensed, readying herself to offer covering fire as the newcomers regrouped, but then—  
    "Get over here!" Zavala yelled at the one who still crouched behind a pile of foundry-marked crates, a trio of Legionaries rapidly approaching his hiding spot. He reached a hand out toward the blue-lit Ghost hovering where the other Guardian had died, and his lapse in concentration proved to be his doom. The shining purple dome flickered and disappeared, leaving him defenseless against the final missile volley.  
    De Zu cried out before she knew it, was moving before she realized it, the image of Zavala's body disintegrating into shining solar energy burning brighter in her mind than all of the fires that were rapidly consuming the plaza. Sunny immediately pinged the others to go on without them as Zu leapt over a pile of rubble, raced up the steps to the small terrace and skidded to a stop at the point where the Commander had died. She stared at his expanded Ghost, mouthplates working silently for a moment before she reached out, added her Light to its own and forced first his immediate resurrection, then knelt to reach down, swinging her hand out to the shining blue bloom of the other Ghost still waiting to resurrect their Guardian.  
    Zavala's convalescence was all anger and defiance, lips curled into a snarl and fine white teeth bared at the enemy raining fire and death from the sky. The other Guardian, a young Warlock, merely stared at Zu with wide eyes as her feet settled upon the cracked floor tiles. "Y-you're—"  
    "Introductions later," Zu cut her off with a quick shake of her head, and she looked up to see that the one who'd used the Gunsmith stall for cover had finally seen fit to join them. "You two, keep those guys off us for a minute, will you?" she ordered, standing. The woman nodded, her robes a whirl of gold-streaked black for a moment as she turned and leapt across the broken Plaza in the direction of the transmat steps. Her Hunter companion followed closely behind. Hopefully the two of them could be counted on to give them at least a few moments' reprieve, but if nothing else Zu could always head down and clear the area herself. Killing Cabal was one of the things she had always been best at, after all.  
    "And what do you think _you're_ doing?!" Zu was jerked backward, spun around to face the Commander. "I told you to get to Ikora. That was an _order_!" he roared.  
    "You ordered _Punchline_ to get to Ikora," she shot back, stepping just out of reach. "Van and Katje are already there, sir! They'll be fine. They can spare me to help you finish up here."  
    "I do _not_ need your help, I need you to—"  
     _"The Speaker is gone!"_ came Ikora's rage-filled voice over the comms, ending their argument.  
    "Van, Katje, what's going on!" asked Zu as Zavala began barking orders.  
     _"Ikora's gone to find the Speaker,"_ replied Katje. _"He's missing. We're working our way through some Cabal at the moment. Cayde is gonna be_ so _pissed_ , _they've wrecked the hell out of his favorite noodle hut—"_  
    "Hunter, Titan," said Zavala crisply, ending their conversation, "Get to the rear terrace. I've got Amanda Holliday inbound with a Hawk, she'll take you to the command ship. I'll have further instructions for you two when you're in the air—"  
    "Incoming!" the young Warlock shrilled across the Plaza. Burning blue eyes widened in frustration as Zavala realized he was not yet ready to protect them again, but De Zu shifted her feet, bent slightly forward at the waist, and flung her arms out wide with a faint sound of exertion. Her shimmering Void dome, so thin and delicate-looking, withstood just as much punishment as had the Commander's own and she forced herself to keep her fullest attention on feeding it a constant flow of energy until every last missile in the current barrage had exploded. _You will not die again,_ she promised. _Not on my watch._  
     _Don't make promises you can't keep,_ Sunny warned.  
    She ignored him. Aloud, she said, "We'll trade off. Please, _let me help you_."  
    Zavala's lips set themselves in a firm line, and he nodded grudgingly. "We'll deal with your inability to follow simple commands later. Thankfully the civilians are all away, but right now we need to hold this position until all remaining Guardians have evacuated. If you're going to be here, I don't want to see a single Legionary make it up the steps to this terrace, is that clear?"  
    She saluted and hopped down onto the grass to replace the other two Guardians, pointing them each toward the exit point.  
     _"Our ride is here,"_ said Van, his voice almost more static than words.  
    "Be careful," she replied. "I'll meet you both at the evac point when this is all over." Another quick burst of static followed, and then nothing.  
     _They're too far away, and the Cabal are doing their best to disrupt our lines of communication,_ Sunny explained. _I'm sure they'll be fine. You wanted to stay here, focus on what you're doing!_  
    He was agitated, she knew it, and so Zu grinned savagely and shotgunned a rampaging Legionary in the face. _I can kill a Colossus in my sleep_ , she declared, hosing down the next two that followed with auto-rifle fire. _A few waves of these big bulky jerks are nothing to us. We've got this, Sunny,_ she replied.  
     _We've got this,_ he repeated, and she felt his hope mingling with her own.  
    One by one the other Guardians came crawling out of the rubble, the debris, the shadows to make a break for the central terrace where years ago the Queen's emissary and Lord Saladin on occasion had stood handing out special missions, her delicate Reef-ship all hung with brightly-colored banners that streamed in the breeze and his burning bronze sigil stamped with wolf-heads and tree branches. A few last brave pilots in a variety of commandeered ships were still making trips back and forth, dodging gunfire and missiles with every last drop of skill they had. De Zu fell into a rhythm of hiding behind the burning Postmaster stand, lobbing grenades and punches and bullets all into groups of Cabal as their meteoric capsules battered and cracked the white tile floor — good thing she didn't need anything out of the Vault, as it had been long since destroyed — and whenever she had a bubble to offer, she dutifully popped it over the Commander's chosen perch to provide him spare Light to absorb and also to help protect the ever more disheveled and desperate stragglers.  
    "That's it!" Zavala finally called as one final Hunter hopped up and over the railing, racing up the steps, his cloak a dull grayish streak against the brilliant orange firelight. "That was the last of us. It's time to go!"  
    De Zu lobbed one last grenade toward a freshly-landed Centurion, smirking to herself as she heard it latch onto his armor with a satisfying 'click', then turned and bolted for the rear terrace as he exploded behind them. _Any word from the others?_ she asked Sunny hopefully, boots thumping against the tile floor as she sprinted to catch up.  
     _Comms are still jammed. I can't reach them._ He paused. _But I'm sure they're fine. We've slain gods and ousted technological horrors from their nests, haven't we? What's a few more Cabal monstrosities between friends._  
    Something twisted inside her upper torso all of a sudden, but she knew there were no moving components in that region of her chassis. _You aren't helping,_ she accused. _Quit being dramatic. They're going to be fine and we'll all meet up at the evac point just like I told them._  
_If they even heard you,_ he grumbled, and she chose to ignore him again.  
    "Here's hoping the rest of your team managed to complete their mission," said the Commander, leaping into the back of the final waiting airship and turning to offer her a hand.  
    As she allowed herself to be helped up, they both turned to glance back at the Traveler one last time before the door closed on them. One of the Cabal ships had gotten close to it, there was an opalescent flare... "Sunny, what _is_ that thing?" she asked, holding her hand out in a silent prompt for him to appear and take a look for himself.  
    He winked into view obediently, but his flight was wobbly, uncertain. "De Zu, something's wrong. I... I can't—"  
    Zavala was saying something as the door latched itself shut, but Zu only had optics and aurals for her Ghost as he warbled something incoherent and fell into her outstretched hand. Then she felt a great drain on her energy, as if all the Light that usually burned within her had suddenly dissipated, leaving her with batteries and willpower alone to sustain her inner workings. She fell down onto the floor unceremoniously, struggling to lift her head and focus. _Sunny?_ she asked, her hand clenching and unclenching around his inert shell, confusion paving the way for fear to creep into whatever lump of machinery passed for an Exo heart.  
    "Hang on back there!" came a voice over the intercom and, as the airship dipped and dove, something else crashed to the floor beside her. She strained to push herself up onto her hands and knees and saw that the Commander, too, seemed to be struggling under an immense weight. He cradled his own inert Ghost against his chest as he pushed himself into a sitting position with his free hand.  
    "Commander," she said, her voice fritzing with the effort it took just to look at him. Her helmet was suddenly stifling, she worked a hand up to her neck to pop the seals and tear it away from her face. "What's... happening?"  
    "Our connection to the Light... is gone." The words grated against teeth bared in defiance against this new affront. "Are you... all right?"  
    Her voice glitched out entirely, garbling her reply as she tried to reach out to the Light. It felt like a limb that had fallen asleep or a missing sense; she knew it was there, its proximity was tantalizing but she could feel nothing. The shining thread tied to her soul that had at once been something less than tangible but more than ethereal was somehow missing. She focused her effort toward verbal communication instead of physical movement. "No," she admitted finally. "Are you?"  
    He looked at her for a moment, then down at the Ghost in his hand. He cradled it to his chest again, giving no other reply.  
    Choking back a groan, Zu again switched focus and this time forced herself to her feet, staggered toward the cockpit. Moving around without Light infusing her was easier the more she was forced by necessity to do so. Unhindered speech came next. "Hey," she called up to the pilot. "What's going on out there, can you see anything?"  
    "I'm hearing scattered reports, they're saying every Guardian in the City's been affected by something stuck to the Traveler. You two okay back there?"  
    "We're alive, if that's what you're asking." She tucked Sunny into a pouch at her side for safe keeping. "Are there any image feeds, can you show us what it is?"  
    The pilot nodded Zu toward the copilot's seat and tapped a couple of buttons on his own console. "That'll give you access to everything I've got. Feel free to search the camera feeds."  
    "Let me. I know which feeds to check."  
    She glanced up at the Commander, whose ashen face and dull eyes regarded the copilot panels intently, then silently stood and allowed him to take the seat. She watched the screens from over his shoulder, willing herself to pay close attention to everything so that she could replay what she saw to herself later on.  
    They watched together as an odd star-shaped device latched onto the Traveler and deployed a shimmering orange barrier; that had been the flare Zu had seen. "A shield of some sort. It must be blocking our Light," Zavala murmured, a hand brushing over the inert Ghost now attached to his hip. "And silencing our Ghosts."  
    Something silvery off to the edge of view caught Zu's attention. "What ship is that?" she asked urgently.  
    "That looks like the command ship." He did his best to enlarge the section.  
    They watched as two small, brightly-colored figures were herded out into the open by three white-silver Cabal figures, the one in the lead was truly enormous. It kicked one of the tiny things, grasped the other by its helmet and dragged it along toward the rear edge of what had to be a landing pad or a loading area of some sort. "The command ship," Zu murmured, optics wide, her grip on the back of the copilot's seat tightening as she realized exactly what they were watching.  
    The leader seemed to pause, perhaps gloating over his now-helpless prey as they struggled to rise, to break free of his grip, and then he reared back, slung the one he held like a sack of potatoes and kicked the other like a soccer ball. Both figures plummeted like stones, swiftly falling out of camera view.  
    Zu blinked once. Then she screamed, a wordless, staticky sound of abject terror.  
    The pilot yelped in surprise and the airship jolted beneath them. He waved his arm over at them both with an angry "Shut her up!" as he fought to regain control of the ship. Zavala, rising to his feet, swiftly dragged the woman out of the cockpit and slid the door shut behind them. He shoved De Zu, still screaming, down onto one of the benches lining the walls and shook her violently by the shoulders. "Snap out of it!" he yelled, shaking her until she finally went silent, optics wide with fear and only halfway focused onto his face.  
    "That was... _that was_ —!"  
    "Yes," he said, giving her one last warning shake before she could say anything else. It didn't really need to be said aloud. They had both watched it happen. Not breaking eye contact, he slowly released her arms and moved to sit beside her.  
    "They couldn't... I mean, they can't possibly... I mean if _we_ can't, there's no way _we_ could survive that right now with us all cut off from—" Her orange-splashed face slowly turned away from him to focus on the grip-patterned flooring, her arms moving to hug her torso. She curled forward in her seat as she continued to babble.  
    "Sit up or you'll fall over," he said, pulling her upright by the neck of her chestplate.  
    "I was supposed to be there with them!" she wailed. "I wasn't supposed to stay! You ordered me to go and I didn't listen, and now—!"  
    Zavala blinked at her, then barked an incredulous laugh. "As I recall, you _demanded_ I let you stay and help me. It was blatant insubordination."  
    "I... but you'd just— I mean, I watched you _die_. I'd never seen a Vanguard die before and it scared the shit outta me, I couldn't just leave you there, sir. You... needed my help," she trailed off miserably, hands balled into fists.  
    "I did," he admitted. "Thank you for staying."  
    "Thank you for abandoning your fireteam in their time of need, you mean," she continued bitterly. Her hands came up to punctuate her words with gestures, and her voice slowly rose in pitch and volume as she spoke. "Thank you for disobeying my orders. Thank you for being an _idiot_! I went against _everything_ you ever taught me about teamwork and fellowship and _being there for your partners_ , and now my fireteam is _dead_ because I wasn't— _OW_!" she yelped as his open hand caught the back of her head, ducking away from him instinctively. "What the—"  
    "Good, you can feel pain. That means you're _alive_ , at least, which is more than would be said for you right now had you gone with them," he said firmly. "And that _also_ means that you'll be able to help search for them as soon as we hit the ground." With a weary sigh, he sat back, leaning against the wall of the aircraft, half-lidded eyes focused on something far away, and perhaps even long ago. "If you recall, _I_ sent your team out there. _You_ had nothing to do with that decision; your friends have paid a terrible price for _my_ lapse in situational judgment. Not yours." His eyes met her optics again. "You have my word that we will not stop looking for them until they have been found."  
    She blinked at him for a long, silent moment, then looked away. _He's unintentionally ordered more people than this to their final deaths. He's been personally responsible for more Guardians than I've ever met. He's been alive for centuries... I've only been here three years._ "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to imply—"  
    "It's okay. Don't worry about it," he forgave her, closing his eyes and leaning his head back a bit further as if to rest. "You're not the first person to lose someone— hell, you're not the first person _today_ to lose someone, I can guarantee you that." He laughed mirthlessly.  
    She reached into the pouch at her belt, pulled Sunny's inert shell out, turned him over thoughtfully in her hands. He yet lay motionless, his lone eye an ominous dark void instead of the bright, restless blue optic she needed to see so badly right now. _I miss you already. Is this how you felt when I reset? When our connection was disrupted, when Van and Katje were the only real companions you had... it feels like forever ago—_  
    Her head slowly rose, mental processes came to a screeching halt as she reached another dreadful realization. She turned to regard the man beside her once more. "Enough about _my_ fireteam, Commander..." she chose her words slowly, carefully.  
    "Do me a favor and drop the titles," he said, his eyes still closed. "I think we're past that, don't you?"  
    "I... er..." she trailed off uncomfortably. "But just calling you 'Zavala' seems so informal."  
    "We're in an informal sort of situation."  
    "All right, _fine_ ," she threw her hands into the air helplessly, standing to face him, gesturing at him with her Ghost still clenched in her fist. "Zavala, where's _your_ fireteam? Where did Cayde and Ikora go?"  
    He looked at her uncertainly, hesitating before pronouncing the fatal words:  
    "I don't know."  
      
    

**Author's Note:**

> During the beta, I spent a lot of time in the Tower Plaza screwing around with the new supers. At one point I happened to turn back to look at Zavala and he dropped his bubble before the missile volley was over. I watched him disintegrate right before my very eyes. When I went to see if I could actually revive him, his respawn animation was all angry shoulders and rage and I found myself hanging around even longer during subsequent playthroughs, just to see if it would happen again.
> 
> Roll on, Destiny 2.


End file.
